"I’ve done everything I really wanted to do except win the lottery, and I’m still working on that one," he said with a laugh.

Brady gave up his biggest life goal Monday when he announced he was retiring as the head football coach at Marion Harding.

"I’ve been very lucky," he said. "I’ve done everything I ever wanted to do and set out to do. I went to college and had a chance to continue on. I always wanted to be a football coach and the head football coach at Marion Harding High School."

Brady lived the dream twice.

An assistant under Harding's winningest coach, Tim Hinton, for eight seasons, Brady succeeded him as head coach from 2004 to 2006, going 16-14 in the span. He resigned to follow the athletic careers of his daughters, who were outstanding athletes at Wynford.

He came back to Harding serve as an assistant under Heath Hinton from 2008 to 2010, then spent two seasons at Wynford as an assistant before taking over the Prexy program again in 2013.

“Coach Brady took over the program at a time when participation and enthusiasm surrounding the football program was historically low," Harding Athletic Director Sean Kearns said in a statement. "His energy and determination has helped restore stability and respectability to the football program. He and his staff have worked tirelessly to bring success back to the Harding football program and laid a solid foundation for the future."

After Brady's first stint as head coach, Heath Hinton went 9-31 in four seasons, then John Cupps went 6-14 in two years.

"The main goal was to get the program back to where it should have been," Brady said of his second stint. "The numbers were so low. At one point I think it was 27 players, 9 through 12. We’re in the high 70s now. That’s one of the big factors. I wanted to come back and get the program back and the kids back out and give the kids an opportunity like I had. I was born and raised a Marion boy and had a chance to use football as a way to do what I want the rest of my life and go to college for free. I wanted to give back and I think I did that."

Brady is a 1979 graduate of Harding. He was an All-Mid-American Conference football player at Toledo and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers before an injury derailed his career.

He jumped into teaching and coaching, working as a graduate assistant at UT and an assistant at Maumee before going to Wynford to work under Greg Filliater. Brady was the head coach at Mechanicsburg for one season, going 7-3, before coming home to Harding to work for Tim Hinton.

Brady went 16-14 and coached Harding's last winning season in 2004 before doing it again this year at 6-4. The first two years of his second stint saw the Presidents go 3-17, but they have been 15-15 overall and 13-8 in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference over the last three years.

"Coach Brady is a part of the fabric of Marion Harding High School and the Marion community," Kearns said. "In his time here as both a head and assistant football coach, he has had a tremendously positive impact on his student-athletes on and off the field. We will miss his presence as our head football coach, but look forward to him remaining as an important part of the Marion Harding family.”

After 35 seasons of coaching and nine as a head coach going 41-49, he decided it was time to retire.

"My wife (Lorie) has been through all the ups and downs with me. She deserves an awful lot of my time, so now it’s time to give it to her," he said. "I owe her a lot."

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Harding football coach John Brady talks to his team during the opening day of practice on Monday.(Photo: Rob McCurdy/The Marion Star)